jimnms wrote on Jun 24, 2012, 21:05:I have yet to see this dumbing down in Civ V. Some parts of the game were streamlined or simplified, but not dumbed down. I find it more challenging than Civ IV. No longer can I create a huge military stack and steam roll my way to an easy domination or territory victory. I tried creating a massive army in my first game and dominating the other civs only to find my civilization crumbling due to massive unhappieness from expanding too fast and razing and conquering a few cities. By the time I managed to get my civs happy enough to begin producing stuff and my military fighting again, I was left in the dust while the other civs had advanced way ahead of me. Civ V requires a lot more strategy and planning than Civ IV.

Some people don't understand the difference between streamlining and dumbing down, and assume that it's an affront to your intelligence if you don't have to spend months learning the mechanics of the various game systems.

Personally, I'd just call that approach poor design, but to each their own.